German President Christian Wulff urged Germans to respect minorities Friday in a Christmas message that picked up on his earlier, controversial call for an inclusive attitude to Islam.
The televised message, broadcast on public television Friday, was recorded with an audience of 200 Germans from all walks of life at Wulff’s official Berlin residence.
‘Each of us needs to feel ‘I belong, I’m needed,” said Wulff before alluding to cultural differences.
‘Our society is free and varied. In order for a society made up of so many different people to survive, we need one thing above all: respect, respect towards those who are different from oneself, and esteem for the things they achieve,’ he said.
Wulff upset many German conservatives in October when he gave a Germany Unity Day speech and said Islam now belonged in Germany.
Conservatives later applauded Chancellor Angela Merkel when she declared that multiculturalism had failed and demanded that minorities adapt to the German way of life. About 5 per cent of people living in Germany are Muslim, mostly of Turkish extraction.
Wulff, a former Christian Democratic state premier, was giving his first Christmas address since being appointed president in June.
The invitation of an audience of charity workers, firefighters and police to hear the speech and meet with Wulff was an innovation. All his predecessors have been filmed giving the Christmas message alone at their desk.
‘Sticking together, understanding one another, getting along: that’s what we need to do in our families, in our private lives and in our society,’ Wulff said, urging more selflessness.
‘Our society lives from those who have an eye for where they are needed and don’t hem and haw about tackling things and accepting responsibility.’